


come back and haunt me

by ShyAudacity



Series: Riverdale Prompt Fills [24]
Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Alice Cooper is A Good Friend, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, FP Jones II tries, Fainting, Fever, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Mentioned Hiram Lodge, Mentioned Mary Andrews, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Other Ships Not Mentioned in Tags, Pre-Season/Series 01, Protective FP Jones II, Road Trips, Sick Character, Sick Fred, Young FP Jones, could be gay if you squint, the parents are all teens okay?, young fred
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-19
Updated: 2018-07-19
Packaged: 2019-06-13 01:40:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15353400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShyAudacity/pseuds/ShyAudacity
Summary: “What the hell is going on with you?”“Dude-.”“No, I mean it. You were acting weird all day yesterday and now you blacked out and you’re trying to act like it’s nothing. I don’t know what going on with you but I just- let me help. I know you don’t like to make a big deal out of thing but whatever this is- you can’t just hold onto it forever. That’s not going to fix things.”Fred doesn’t look up, but he does, however, let out a short, rough breath as his shoulders start shoulders shaking. He looks up after a minute, tears spilling over his eyes as he runs his hand over his mouth, trying to keep it from happening.“My dad’s real sick, F.” He says quietly, his voice breaking at the end.ORanon said: Any chance you’d write that fic about Archie or someone taking care of a sick Fred?





	come back and haunt me

**Author's Note:**

  * For [jugheadjones](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jugheadjones/gifts).



> I got this prompt like a month ago and then was unable to write/finish it until right now, also Julia had a birthday that I did not know about so this is for her. 
> 
> Unbeta'd and title from The Scientist by Coldplay.

FP has been looking forward to this for two weeks. From the moment that Alice suggested a road trip, he knew exactly what he wanted to do. There’s an old cabin that his grandfather left to his old man when he passed; FP has never been there before, but he’s been itching for a reason to get out of town.

Junior year might just get the best of him if it doesn’t hurry up and _end_ already. Fred keeps telling him to just stick with it but my god if he doesn’t want to bash his head into a wall somedays.

The morning of, everyone gets picked up according to proximity. First Fred, then Alice, Tom Keller, then Hermione. Mary was going to come, but she came down with a case of strep that two days before and had to cancel.

Hermione haphazardly throws her bag into FP’s pick-up truck, climbing in the back next to Alice.

Tom leans forward, “Where’s Hiram? I thought he was coming too.”

“We’re on a break as of last night, so he uninvited himself.” She tells him, sounding unimpressed.

FP can practically hear Alice’s eye roll; he grins to himself, mostly for Fred’s sake since he’s had a crush on Hermione for two months.

He’s driving, only semi paying attention to the conversation that Hermione and Alice are having in the back seat. FP can’t help but notice that Fred is being uncharacteristically quiet; well, he’s always been soft-spoken, but something about this feels different. He keeps pulling at his bottom lip like he always does when something is bothering him.

FP nudges him, meets his eye carefully.

“You okay?” he asks, tone quiet.

Fred gives a small nod, mutters, “Headache.”

He pulls his baseball cap down over his eyes, sticking his feet up on the dashboard after FP squeezes his shoulder, moves his hand over the back of Fred’s head. FP doesn’t press it again, tells himself that if it’s really important then Fred will just come to him when he’s ready, hopes silently that it’s sooner than later for Fred’s sake.

It’s another two hours drive out of town before they’ll get there, and the gang spends most of it listening to Hermione go on about her family’s plans to go to New York for the summer. Fred doesn’t speak up more than twice the rest of the car ride, spends most of it leaning his head against the window.

Once they finally arrive, he’s the last one out of the car and into the house; FP’s starting to think that something is really wrong, but he promised himself that he wouldn’t press it.

There’s a queen size in the bedroom and two cots where the kitchen table should be. The girls snag the bed as soon as they walk in, leaving Tom, Fred, and FP to a stare down over who’s being forced to the floor.

“Not it.”

“Not it.”

“Not- _damn_ _it_.” Tom curses.

FP smirks, then gives Fred a fist bump behind his back.

All of them go down to the lake, spend hours in the water playing chicken and jumping off the rope swing, despite the cold tinge to the water. Once the sun has begun to go down and they’ve all gained a little color in their cheeks, they head back to the house ready to set up the bonfire for the hotdog dinner that’s been planned in advance.

FP keeps not so subtly looking over at Fred, trying to keep tabs on him, waiting for him to crack and say something, do something, _anything_. He leans over towards Alice at one point, asking her if she thinks anything seems off about him.

Alice just raises her eyebrows at him, leaning forward to spare half a glance in Fred’s direction.

“He looks fine to me, he’s probably stressing himself out about work.”

“Work?”

“Yeah, Pop Tate said he came in the other day asking any open positions, looking for a summer job or something. He didn’t tell you?”

FP shakes his head, tries not to let it bother him.

Fred goes to bed before everyone else, mid smore’s session, barely bothering to say goodnight. FP comes in later, and Fred is lying on his stomach, half curled around his pillow with his shirt off, facing away from the door.

He thinks it’s weird; FP has crashed at Fred’s place hundreds of times over the years and he’s never seen Fred sleep like that, not once. As much as it nags at him, there’s no point in waking Fred up just to talk about it.

FP lies awake for a while that night, trying to figure out if he’s reading into this Fred situation too much, wonders if he’s looking for something that isn’t actually there.  

***

In the morning, after he’s rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, FP finds Alice standing in front of the stove making breakfast, wearing a red flannel that’s three sizes too big for her small frame.

She looks over at him when walks in.

“Hey, you hungry?”

“Nah, maybe later.” He says, tugs at the arm of her shirt. “I’ll let everyone else eat first, make sure you didn’t poison it or something.”

“Oh, shut up.” She bites, yanking her arm away from him.

He laughs for a second, then pokes his head around the corner, drops his voice when he sees that Fred’s awake and talking to Tom.

“You really think that Fred’s okay?”

“Oh _my god_ , this again? Really?” 

FP shrugs.

“This is Fred we’re talking about, your best friend- you really think that he wouldn’t-.”

 Alice stops when a groan comes from the other room and Tom calls out.

“Hey, a little help!”

Both of them rush into the room with wide eyes, stomachs dropping when they find Tom holding up a half-conscious Fred between the two beds, one arm around his back, his other hand planted against Fred’s chest.

Fred is glistening with a layer of sweat, his eyes glazed over and breathing heavy.

“Sit him down.” FP all but barks, moving in front of him.

They sit him down on the bed, FP across from him, both hands on Fred’s upper arms to keep him upright. He’s never seen Fred so helpless like this, so pliant; FP thinks for a minute that he might be sick to his stomach just looking at him.

Someone brings him some water and after a second he’s nearly hacking up a lung, practically pushing FP off of him. Fred hunches over, hiding his face in his hands.

Whether it’s because he just fainted or because he’s embarrassed Fred’s face begins to flush red, and FP knows that he needs to do something. It’s obvious that there’s something going on, now it’s just a matter of getting him to talk.

“Would you guys give us the room for a minute?”

“FP-.” Alice tries.

“Just for a minute, I mean it.” He bites.

She sighs, then turns to leave, pulling Tom along with her; FP turns his attention back to Fred whose gaze is still locked on the floor.

_What could possibly be rattling around in that head of yours that you wouldn’t tell me?_

“What the hell is going on with you?”

“Dude-.”

“No, I mean it. You were acting weird all day yesterday and now you blacked out and you’re trying to act like it’s nothing. I don’t know what going on with you but I just- let me help. I know you don’t like to make a big deal out of things but whatever this is- you can’t just hold onto it forever. That’s not going to fix things.”

Fred doesn’t look up, but he does, however, let out a short, rough breath as his shoulders start shoulders shaking. He looks up after a minute, tears spilling over his eyes as he runs his hand over his mouth, trying to keep it from happening.

“My dad’s real sick, F.” He says quietly, his voice breaking at the end.

FP’s stomach sinks once again; for a second, after seeing the distraught look on Fred’s face, he wishes that he’d never asked.

“How long… since you found out?”

He shrugs, still crying lightly, “A few weeks.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I was trying not to t-think about it.”

“We could have helped you know,” Alice says from the doorway, her arms crossed over her chest. “It’s not a bad thing to lean on your friends every once and a while.”

“I thought I told you to take a walk.”

“I thought you were smart enough to realize by now that I don’t listen to you.”

FP rolls his eyes; Alice comes in, plops herself down next to Fred, leaning into his side.

"Is that why you were talking to Pop Tate about getting a job?"

He nods, "Yeah... the treatment is expensive and- I don't know, I wanted to find a way to help."

She slings an arm around his neck only to realize how hot he is.  

“Jesus, Freddie, you’re burning up.” She states, touching his face and neck with her hand.

Fred sighs when Alice touches his skin, then straightens up, tries to play it off by moving out from under her arm.

FP reaches for him anyway, cursing internally when he feels the heat coming off of Fred’s skin.

“Why didn’t you say that you were sick? You could have stayed home this weekend.”

“It was just a headache ‘til this morning,” He mutters, resting his head on Alice’s shoulder. “Besides, my mom has enough to worry about already.”

FP drops his shoulders, feeling defeated. Fred’s fever is only going to keep climbing if they don’t do something about it soon, but they don’t have any ice or aspirin at the cabin. After a second he gets an idea, standing up quickly.

“Get up, we have to go down to the lake.”

FP keeps an arm around Fred’s waist as they make the trek down to the water, Alice at his other side, her hand on the inside of his arm. All of them strip down to their skivvies and take slow steps into the water until it’s up to their waists.

Fred makes a strangled sound when the cool water touches his skin, and FP doesn’t want to think about whether that’s good or not. He keeps one of his hands curled around Fred’s, keeps a tight grip on him while he uses the other to scoop water onto his back, rubbing it into his skin.

Alice continues talking quietly in his ear, trying to get him to open up about the situation with his dad; he doesn’t answer half of her questions, but it’s worth a shot.

The three of them stay until Fred starts to shake from the cold- even though he’s sweating a ridiculous amount. FP gives him a piggyback back to the cabin after nearly falling on his face more than once; Fred’s too tired to try and fight it.     

He doesn’t look any better than before they went down to the lake, and there’s a unanimous decision from the rest of the group to go home a day early, despite Fred swearing up and down that he’ll be fine.

“We really don’t have to-.”

Alice and FP are quick to cut him off, saying, “Shut up.”

It takes less than an hour to pack up and FP doesn’t let Fred move even an inch, just forces a bottle of water into his hand, telling him that he better drink the whole damn thing.

Once they’re in the car and headed back home, Alice and FP share the front. Twenty minutes in, he looks back when Alice nudges him, notices that Fred is asleep on Hermione’s shoulder; she’s moving fingers through his damp hair, thumb brushing against his cheek every once and a while.

FP grins to himself, then gives Alice a fist bump, tells himself that the trip wasn’t such a bust after all.

**Author's Note:**

> I had to put some feelings in there, I just had to, alright?
> 
> Thanks for reading! Comments/Kudos are encouraged and appreciated. If you have a prompt you can leave it here or at my Riverdale blog (archieandrewsprotectionsquad). Thanks again for reading, have a great day!


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